About the AuthorMike Elgan

Smartphones are supercomputers.Or, at least, they’re significantly more powerful than supercomputers were ten years ago. And way more powerful than desktops were five years ago.Smartphones also offer killer benefits that laptops don’t — namely, long…

The world of security is getting super weird. And the solutions may be even weirder than the threats.I told you last week that some of the biggest companies in technology have been caught deliberately introducing potential vulnerabilities into mobil…

Your smartphone may contain secret “features” that leave you vulnerable.I’m not talking about accidental design flaws that hackers might exploit. Security issues have always existed. They represent a cat-and-mouse game between malicious actors, who …

Star Trek got it right.In the future, we’ll interact with computers mostly by talking.But for those computers to be available for instant interaction, they’ll have to be attached to our physical persons. I’m talking about virtual assistants on weara…

Will smart glasses fog when I drink my morning coffee?So many questions about the future of smart glasses remain unanswered.As we slouch toward the end of the smartphone era, it’s important to consider what comes next — and plan accordingly.Here are…

Apple’s new iPhone X reads faces. And privacy pundits are gnashing their teeth over it.The phone’s complex TrueDepth image system includes an infrared projector, which casts 30,000 invisible dots, and an infrared camera, which checks where in three-…

Apple’s shiny new iPhone X smartphone became available for pre-order on FridayPacked with both bells and whistles and dominating the field in both speeds and feeds, Apple’s hotly anticipated iPhone X will be considered by some to be the world’s grea…

Apple’s shiny new iPhone X smartphone became available for pre-order on FridayPacked with both bells and whistles and dominating the field in both speeds and feeds, Apple’s hotly anticipated iPhone X will be considered by some to be the world’s grea…

The latest advancements come from Apple and Google. The new iPhone 8 line and iPhone X phones, as well as Google’s new Pixel phones, are blistering fast, offer near-DSLR-quality cameras and perform a growing range of cool stunts, such as supporting augmented reality.

If you were to ask the public if they want all this power and ability, they’d probably respond, “Well, yes! Absolutely!”

But if you were to ask them if the newest phones solve any problems people have with their lives, the answer would be, “Well, no. Absolutely not!”

Google held a big hardware event this week, announcing a couple of new Pixel-branded smartphones, two Google Home devices, a new Pixelbook laptop, new earbuds called Pixel Buds, and a consumer camera called Google Clips.

Of all the new Google products announced, Google Clips is the most interesting by far — which is to say that it represents the most interesting trend. This consumer device represents the future of enterprise A.I.

But wait, you might say. Isn’t Google’s Pixel Buds product the most revolutionary? Its ability to translate language in real time is something out of science fiction, and the elimination of language barriers surely has major implications for the future of mankind.

“Information wants to be free.”That was the motto of truth-seeking digital activists in the ’80s and ’90s.The motto today is: “Information wants to be fake.”Just look at the news this week for a glimpse of how much chaos fake news is causing.Faceboo…

Apple has now rolled out its shiny new iPhones.On Sept. 12, Apple executives predictably pronounced the latest phones “revolutionary.” But the real revolution is happening under the surface and behind the scenes.The new iPhones come with cutting-edg…

But when Yahoo and IBM famously banned telecommuting, some assumed the trend toward increasing work-from-home policies would be thrown into reverse. That assumption is a big mistake.

The telecommuting trend will continue. More than that: Companies will be increasingly forced to allow employees to work from outside the office. This trend obviously has major implications for security and management.

InfoTrends says people will take 1.2 trillion digital photos this year. That’s 100 billion more than last year and nearly double the number taken as recently as 2013.The rate at which photo taking grows is currently clocked at a whopping 100 billion…

Smartwatches failed as a product category because the main industry players made a huge mistake.They started with consumer smartwatches and treated the enterprise as an afterthought. It should have been the other way around.Three years ago, smartwat…

Smartwatches failed as a product category because the main industry players made a huge mistake.They started with consumer smartwatches and treated the enterprise as an afterthought. It should have been the other way around.Three years ago, smartwat…

Instead of fearing that artificial intelligence (A.I.) will replace us, we should be excited about how A.I. will help us.

In a perfect future, our A.I. virtual assistant will know what we’re doing, where we’re going and — most importantly — what we’re saying. They’ll know lots of other things, too. And when they sense we need help, they’ll whisper suggestions, ideas or facts into our ears, essentially giving us real-time knowledge as we go about our day.

As you’re walking from a parking garage to your meeting, your virtual assistant should give you turn-by-turn walking directions without you having to ask. As you shake hands before the meeting, your virtual assistant should remind you (without anyone else hearing), that you met the person four years ago at a conference. During the meeting, it should listen for potential questions and supply the answer.

Silicon Valley is draining away the economy’s most precious resource for its own benefit.

OK, I’d better explain that.

The economy’s most precious resource is human attention — specifically, the attention people pay to their work. No matter what kind of company you own, run or work for, the employees of that company are paid for not only their skill, experience and work, but also for their attention and creativity.

When, say, Facebook and Google grab user attention, they’re taking that attention away from other things. One of those things is the work you’re paying employees to do.

As a thought experiment, imagine that an employee who used to pay attention to your business eight hours each day now pays attention only seven hours a day because he or she is now focusing on Facebook during that last hour. You’re paying the employee the same, but getting less employee attention for it.

Words matter. And as a stickler for accuracy in language that describes technology, it pains me to write this column.I hesitate to expose the truth, because the public is already confused about virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed rea…

These kiosks are the work of a Google-backed startup called Intersection. The company has already installed around 1,000 kiosks, and aims to install more than 6,000 more, Intersection Chief Innovation Officer Colin O’Donnell said in an interview this week.

In the 1989 comedy Back the Future, Part 2, Marty McFly travels into the high-tech, space-age future of 2015 where he encounters, among other dazzling wonders, a shark hologram advertising Jaws 10.That kind of advertising is called experiential mark…

Augmented reality is frivolous, we’re told. It’s mainly for gimmicks and games.But an important transformation is about to get under way. Starting next year, AR will begin transforming enterprise communications, logistics, manufacturing, analytics, …

Don’t look now, but your desktop user interface dates back to the Nixon administration. Is it time to upgrade to the next UI?

New technologies revolutionize business. And big shifts like artificial intelligent (AI) virtual assistants and augmented reality seem to have gone from “someday” technologies, to “happening right now.”

These technologies are expected to transform business for the better. And I believe they will — far more than we realize. These new systems come with powerful new user interfaces. There’s just one problem: People don’t like new interfaces — and cling to the old, inefficient ones.

It’s not a theoretical problem. Global business has lost productivity on a galactic scale because of our failure to or inability to switch to the best interface.

Google is working hard to make phones obsolete.The company wouldn’t admit this. And they don’t want me to say it. They still have to make nice with mobile phone carriers who support and sell Android phones.In getting rid of the phone as we know it, …

Three years ago, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer famously banned employees from working remotely. Earlier this year, IBM did the same thing, forcing remote workers to start showing up at the office.

The most popular justifications for such a policy are efficiency and collaboration — especially collaboration. The idea that employees from various groups should randomly encounter each other, brainstorm and collaborate is practically a Silicon Valley religion.

The world’s largest long-haul airline wants both employees and customers using smart glasses.Emirates Airlines, based in Dubai, revealed this week that the company sees smart glasses as a strategic initiative that should help them fend off discount …

Voice recognition giant Nuance offers an enterprise ready virtual assistant called Nina, which specializes in knowing the limits of A.I. and kicking queries over to a team of human assistants when necessary. Nuance this month announced a Nina “skill” on Amazon’s Alexa platform.

A decade ago, I witnessed a glorious sunset over the Mediterranean from the unique vantage point of a cliff on the edge of Oia, a beautiful village on the Greek island of Santorini — me, my wife and a few dozen other visitors. Everyone was facing t…